IIRC, you used to be able to view product spec­i­fi­ca­tions on Compaq's support website. That's what a support website if for, right? It's so the company doesn't have to waste time or money (theirs, not mine) on live support. That, apparently, is not the purpose of the Compaq support website.

The purpose is, apparently, to provide so little in­for­ma­tion that the owner of a laptop must call for any in­for­ma­tion more technical than, "Does my laptop have a keyboard?"

After I got through to their technical support line, the lady who answered the phone asked me a series of questions (name, address, phone number). That was fine, but near the end of the questions I asked her if it was necessary to collect all that in­for­ma­tion to answer my question. She asked what my question was, and I responded, "What is the vertical and horizontal refresh for the LCD screen on my laptop?" I was im­me­di­ate­ly trans­ferred to another queue. That doesn't really bother me, but it does beg the question: Why don't they find out the general nature of the question before asking all those questions?

Anyway, so I'm on hold waiting for someone to answer, and they do (after 20 minutes). He starts asking for all the same in­for­ma­tion, and I break in to suggest that for my question this in­for­ma­tion probably won't be needed. He asks what my question is, and I tell him. He says to hold on, and he'll look it up. That takes 5-10 minutes (I lost track). After that, he gave me the in­for­ma­tion I needed (for a Compaq Presario 906us the horizontal refresh is 30-60 KHz, and the vertical refresh is 65-70 KHz). I asked him whether this in­for­ma­tion could be found anywhere on their support website. He said, "No, it's only in internal doc­u­men­ta­tion."

Now, why are the refresh rates of the LCD screens on laptops only in internal doc­u­men­ta­tion?!?!?

Grrr. 45 minutes I'll never get back. I just don't understand why they removed the in­for­ma­tion from their website in the first place!